Few things are as fundamental to human happiness as sex, and few writers are as entertaining about the subject as Mary Roach. Can a woman think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Why doesn’t Viagra help women – or, for that matter, pandas? Does orgasm boost fertility? Or cure hiccups? The study of sexual physiology – what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better – has been taking place behind closed doors for many hundreds of years. In Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science, Mary Roach steps inside laboratories, brothels, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs – even Alfred Kinsey’s attic – to tell us everything we wanted to know about sex, and a lot we’d never even thought to ask.

This is a quick, and enormously enjoyable and eye-opening read. Roach uses a humourous conversational tone throughout, she doesn’t needlessly get bogged down in scientific terminology, and when it is necessary to do so, great care is taken to explain everything in a simplified manner. The downside of this, however, is that it sometimes seems like not enough time is spent fleshing out some genuinely interesting experiments that are being examined. Just as you begin to really get a good grasp on the information at hand, the chapter ends, and it is a little disappointing.

The chapters follow a well-crafted episodic structure, each one neatly links in to the next and the connections are explained. I can imagine that the information in this book would make a compelling documentary series, but it would need someone with the deft skill of Roach to make it so. Roach doesn’t take a dry approach to her subject, she doesn’t just spit out chunks of scientific journals. While this is generally a positive thing, I feel like it also contributes to the lack of depth. Instead, she interviews many intriguing characters and researchers – such as the Taiwanese urological surgeon, the manager of a sex toy factory, the Danish pig inseminators – and she even participates beyond the expected authorial call of duty. Roach combines her hands on participation, field experiences, and her scholarly research to fully engage the reader in to the world of sexual physiology.

The conclusion appears to be that despite all the leaps forward that science has made in the area, there is still much that we do not know, suggesting that human sexual response is such a complex one that we will never fully be able to understand all the minute facets of it. Considering that some of the research done as recently as the 1950s seems to be, by current standards, almost ludicrous in execution and conclusions, we have to wonder just how far we have to go toward a complete – if indeed such a thing is possible – scientific understanding of the sexual responses of humans.

Further Reading:

• The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction by Rachel P. Maines.
• The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America by Meika Loe.
• some basic knowledge of the Kinsey Reports is helpful when reading this as well, they are mentioned throughout a lot. A cursory glance at the wikipedia article should be more than enough.